University of Limerick’s Presidents Volunteer Awards 2019 ceremony celebrates student volunteerism

Presidents Volunteer Award 2019 – Gabriella Hanrahan, Community Liaison Officer, and PVA manager University of Limerick, Dr. Vicky Phelan, Dr. Des Fitzgerald President University of Limerick, Mairead Cleary PVA host and 4th year UL student, Jack Scanlan President Student Life and Prof Kerstin Mey Vice President Academic Affairs and Student Engagement. Picture: Brian Arthur

University of Limerick’s Presidents Volunteer Awards 2019 ceremony celebrates student volunteerism

By I Love Limerick correspondent Danielle Lynch

The ninth annual Presidents Volunteer Awards 2019 (PVA) ceremony was held in the University Concert Hall Limerick and UL’s president and Dr. Des Fitzgerald recognized and awarded students who contributed more than 30,000 volunteer hours during the 2018-2019 academic year to charity organizations In Limerick, Ireland and abroad.

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The PVA has been established to harness, acknowledge and support the contribution that students at the University of Limerick make to their communities and draws on a strong tradition of student volunteering both on and off-campus. The PVA is held throughout the whole year and is an event for the University of Limerick students where their efforts for volunteering in communities or charities are rewarded for a certain number of hours through the semester and or year. 

It is a unique higher education award, which is how it boosts the UL student’s transcripts. Having this award does help promote the skills that the students build upon and learn throughout their time volunteering, specifically their civic and leadership skills. 

Mary Abiodin Adetunj, Ola Cole and Ifunanya Nwaudoh all from Nigeria pictured at the 2019 University of Limericks President Volunteer Awards. Picture: Brian Arthur.

This award has three different tiers of the award, Bronze which is twenty hours, silver is forty hours and lastly, you have gold which is 60 hours of volunteering. There is also a Plassey award for specifically international students who only spend one semester out in the University of Limerick.  

The opportunities students have to volunteer are wide and large as there are international opportunities for the students to travel abroad, whilst also having the opportunities to work nationwide or just simply doing volunteer opportunities in Limerick. 

The number of students taking part in this award is increasing every year.  They advertise the PVA a lot to students as they do acquire many transferable work-related skills and students volunteer to get these skills and perks. What their main goal is by offering the award is that the student population out in UL acquire a routine for volunteering and to help their communities out with the development of clubs. It also promotes the skills they earned from this opportunity to other students so that at some stage throughout their studies in UL they would consider going for this reward. 

Alan Peters, who volunteered in 2018 with ULFM, the student radio station on the University of Limerick campus, said, “after this voluntary experience, it has made me more open to volunteering in general. The appreciation you get from fellow members and committee members is warming and full of enthusiasm to keep doing what you do.”  Congrats to all the award winners!

For more information on the Presidents Volunteer Awards 2019 click here.

For more stories on The University of limerick click here.